Anything digital can be hacked.

"Binance, the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange worked...to shore up public confidence after a record $6.3 billion hack of its platform," "which analysts blamed on North Korea and said could be the largest financial heist of all time." Reuters. "Last year, attackers stole $2.9 billion worth of cryptocurrency across nearly 150 attacks, according to researchers at TRM labs." "The bulk of the heist unfolded in 20 minutes, blockchain records show, beginning shortly after 2000 GMT. Once the funds were moved, attackers raced to shift them beyond the reach of Binance counterparties and stablecoin issuers, which have frozen roughly half of the stolen assets." Reuters. A small group of fast-acting traders generated huge profits as "the hackers, eager to cash out the stolen funds, concluded transactions at steep discounts, leaving massive mismatches across multiple blockchains and trading platforms." "The more panicked the hackers were, the more losses they incurred, and the faster the traders made gains." 36Kr. The Reserve Bank of India has issued a digital rupee or e-rupee which "is a tokenised digital version of the Indian rupee," and known as Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). It will be used for domestic and cross border transactions and will interact with the Unified Payments System (UPI) through an app. wikipedia. "The Minister stated that the CBDC pilot launched by the RBI in retail segment has components based on blockchain technology," (pib.gov.in) and will be used instead of physical currency which will save money on printing banknotes. "e-rupee wallets are safe and secure. There is a robust cyber-security framework to ensure that the e-rupee is kept secure in the user's wallet. The e-rupee stored in the e-rupee wallet is safe even if the mobile device on which the e-rupee wallet is installed is lost." rbi.org.in. Does it mean the e-rupee is hack-proof? The RBI is using blockchain technology to create and hold e-rupees, the same technology used by cryptocurrencies, so we could be forgiven if we doubt the safety of e-rupees if hackers took just 20 minutes to rob Binance. An exchange worth $6.3 billion would make every effort to protect investors with iron-clad security. "In 1991, researcher scientists named Stuart Haber and W Scott Stornetta introduced Blockchain Technology. These scientists wanted some Computational practical solution for time-stamping the digital documents so they couldn't be tempered or misdated." "In this System, the time-stamped documents are stored in a Chain of Blocks." geeksforgeeks. Perhaps, the RBI is banking on the fact that the Indian rupee is not a reserve currency, which is a currency held by central banks for international trade (Investopedia). As on 21 August 2026, the RBI held 591.333 billion in foreign currencies, the vast majority would have been in US dollars. It also held 18.852 billion in SDRs. rbi.org.in. The International Monetary Fund uses Special Drawing Rights (SDR), "which is an international reserve asset. The SDR is not a currency, but its value is based on a basket of five currencies - the US dollar, the euro, the Chinese renminbi, the Japanese yen, and the British pound sterling." imf. org. The rupee is neither a reserve currency nor an SDR. In fact, the RBI very strictly controls the movement of the rupee. Indians are allowed to take only Rs 25,000 in cash when traveling abroad. Mumbai Customs. Which means North Korean or any international hacker will not be interested in hacking the e-rupee. Except Pakistan and Pakistan based terrorists. Perhaps, the RBI is being too sanguine. The e-rupee could exacerbate our danger.